# Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 7, 2017, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-agents-registration-act-fara/776587 "2017-01-07T23:44:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Me\_Billy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e480ec/32.png) [@Me\_Billy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Me_Billy)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2017, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-agents-registration-act-fara/776587/1 "2017-01-07T23:44:14Z")
Report persons here spreading Russian propaganda to the FBI. They are in violation of the **Foreign Agents Registration Act** (FARA) if they are not making disclosures. _[“The purpose of FARA is to insure that the U.S. Government and the people of the United States are informed of the source of information (propaganda) and the identity of persons attempting to influence U.S. public opinion, policy, and laws. In 1938, FARA was Congress’ response to the large number of German propaganda agents in the pre-WWII U.S…”]_ FARA Web Site… [https://www.fara.gov](https://www.fara.gov) ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2017, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-agents-registration-act-fara/776587/2 "2017-01-08T00:24:14Z")
Why would anyone spread Russian propaganda to the FBI? ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2017, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-agents-registration-act-fara/776587/3 "2017-01-08T01:26:19Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > Why would anyone spread Russian propaganda to the FBI? Ha ha, Mister Grammar. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2017, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-agents-registration-act-fara/776587/4 "2017-01-08T02:37:15Z")
Wouldn’t you need to be doing more than “spreading Russian propaganda”? You would also need to be in a principal-agent relationship with the foreign government. Otherwise, if Australians living in the US said to their friends “visit Australia – it’s a wonderful place”, they’d need to register under the FARA. They would only need to do so if acting as an agent of the Australian government. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2017, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-agents-registration-act-fara/776587/5 "2017-01-08T04:35:24Z")
I have a facebook friend in Brunei, who sometimes posts messages to me that Brunei is a nice place. Should I report her for spreading Bruneian propaganda? How do I know if she is acting as an agent for the government? Presume guilt until proved innocent? If I forward them to someone else, does that make me a foreign agent? I remember the McCarthy hearings, I was in high school. ---
**Author:** ![voltaire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voltaire/32/313_2.png) [@voltaire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voltaire)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2017, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-agents-registration-act-fara/776587/6 "2017-01-08T05:04:02Z")
Please don’t spam the FBI with frivolous, unfounded suspicions about every troll you run across. They have better things to do. ---
**Author:** ![Battle\_Pope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Battle\_Pope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Battle_Pope)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2017, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-agents-registration-act-fara/776587/7 "2017-01-08T05:11:24Z")
“Are you now or have you ever been a member of an anti-Trump organisation?” ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2017, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-agents-registration-act-fara/776587/8 "2017-01-08T05:56:38Z")
My first instinct is to turn in Trump, but I suppose they already have his name. ---
**Author:** ![Evan\_Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b487fb/32.png) [@Evan\_Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evan_Drake)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2017, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-agents-registration-act-fara/776587/9 "2017-01-08T09:59:52Z")
> [@Battle\_Pope](#): > > “Are you now or have you ever been a member of an anti-Trump organisation?” The OP is _against_ Trump, and his Shadowy Russian Masters. > [@voltaire](#): > > Please don’t spam the FBI with frivolous, unfounded suspicions about every troll you run across. They have better things to do. Prolly not. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2017, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-agents-registration-act-fara/776587/10 "2017-01-08T14:22:45Z")
> [@voltaire](#): > > Please don’t spam the FBI with frivolous, unfounded suspicions about every troll you run across. They have better things to do. No, I’m pretty sure they’ve finished reviewing Hillary’s emails. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2017, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-agents-registration-act-fara/776587/11 "2017-01-09T00:06:12Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > Ha ha, Mister Grammar. In fact, I too genuinely didn’t understand your sentence and stayed 😕 I only got it when I read this “Mister Grammar” comment. I realized there must have been an alternative way to parse the sentence, reread it and then only understood what you meant. ---
**Author:** ![BobArrgh](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobarrgh/32/2881_2.png) [@BobArrgh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobArrgh)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2017, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-agents-registration-act-fara/776587/12 "2017-01-09T16:08:48Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > Wouldn’t you need to be doing more than “spreading Russian propaganda”? You would also need to be in a principal-agent relationship with the foreign government. Otherwise, if Australians living in the US said to their friends “visit Australia – it’s a wonderful place”, they’d need to register under the FARA. They would only need to do so if acting as an agent of the Australian government. Yes, they should register with FARA, since Australia is so close to Russia.